How to debug EntityMalformedException?

Question

I've got fatal error EntityMalformedException: Missing bundle property on entity of type node. in entity_extract_ids() (line 7700 of .\includes\common.inc) when trying to access user/xyz.

I tried to retrieve info about the malformed node at line 7700, where the error message is built, thinks like :

if (!isset($entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']}) || $entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']} === '') {
 dpm($info);// or dpm($entity);
 throw new EntityMalformedException(t('Missing bundle property on entity of type @entity_type.', array('@entity_type' => $entity_type)));
}

dpm($entity) returns an unexpected user object, and $info a huge qty of things.

Could somebody put me on the right way ?

I already read whatever I could find about Missing bundle property errors, but none helped solving.

dpm($entity) returns

uid (String, 2 characters ) 70
name (String, 9 characters ) John
pass (String, 55 characters ) $S$DUwPuOuDPiDL4nRTYXqc7a5uOfMKey7pyhOFUEKka1XM...
mail (String, 30 characters ) [email protected]
theme (String, 0 characters )
signature (String, 0 characters )
signature_format (String, 13 characters ) filtered_html
created (String, 10 characters ) 1396286331
access (String, 10 characters ) 1397146661
login (String, 10 characters ) 1396513460
status (String, 1 characters ) 1
timezone (NULL)
language (String, 2 characters ) fr
picture (NULL)
init (String, 30 characters ) [email protected]
data (Array, 5 elements)
roles (Array, 1 element)
og_user_node (Array, 0 elements)
message_subscribe_email (Array, 1 element)
field_bio (Array, 0 elements)
field_name_first (Array, 1 element)
field_name_last (Array, 1 element)
field_facebook_url (Array, 0 elements)
field_linkedin_url (Array, 0 elements)
field_twitter_url (Array, 0 elements)
user_trusted_contacts (Array, 1 element)
group_group (Array, 1 element)
group_access (Array, 1 element)
metatags (Array, 0 elements)
rdf_mapping (Array, 3 elements)
realname (String, 13 characters ) John Doe
content (Array, 13 elements)
entity_view_prepared (Boolean) TRUE
privatemsg_disabled (Boolean) FALSE

Answer 1

The error:

EntityMalformedException: Missing bundle property on entity of type node.

happens, because your bundle property is malformed either on load or save, so Drupal can't find what type of bundle is it.

The logic of that Exception is:

// Explicitly fail for malformed entities missing the bundle property.
if (!isset($entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']}) || $entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']} === '') {
  // var_dump(debug_backtrace()); exit; // You may want this line to debug.
  throw new EntityMalformedException(t('Missing bundle property on entity of type @entity_type.', array('@entity_type' => $entity_type)));
}

So basically value of $info['entity keys']['bundle'] (for node it's: type) can't be found in $entity object ($node->type for the node), therefore Drupal doesn't know with what kind of entity it's dealing with. So most likely your entity is invalid (e.g. you're loading something else instead) or it is just empty ($entity is NULL).

---

If you haven't modified any Drupal code, this potentially can be caused by variety of things (most likely by specific Drupal module bug), such as:

• saving invalid entity such as:

  • missing type from the node object (e.g. wrongly generated by Devel Generate?);

• orphaned nodes in node table;

• invalid rows in field_data_field_xxx table;
• having orphaned nodes, caused by:
  • search view having indexed nodes which aren't in the system;
  • other modules (like Feeds) removing nodes from Drupal improperly;

• nodes having invalid/non-existing references; for term data this can be checked by:

  drush sqlq "SELECT nid, title from node WHERE nid IN (select entity_id from  field_data_field_some_ref WHERE field_some_ref_tid not IN (select tid from taxonomy_term_data));"
  

  Where field_data_field_some_ref is data field of field_some_ref which is type of 'Term reference'.

  See: DB records not deleted for Term Reference Fields after Term is Deleted

• having orphaned taxonomy terms (so you may use Taxonomy Orphanage);

• entity caching issue;
• when using Rules Link module;

• invalid custom code (human error) such as:

  • badly implemented Entity API,
  • badly implemented CTools/Form API,
  • !empty() test on the entity variable before calling field_get_items(),
  • rendering field by invalid calls,
  • triggering functions which shouldn't be triggered on certain pages (e.g. field_view_field()),

Here is the responsible code which is thrown by Drupal core (file: common.inc):

 if (!empty($info['entity keys']['bundle'])) {
    // Explicitly fail for malformed entities missing the bundle property.
    if (!isset($entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']}) || $entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']} === '') {
      throw new EntityMalformedException(t('Missing bundle property on entity of type @entity_type.', array('@entity_type' => $entity_type)));
    }
    $bundle = $entity->{$info['entity keys']['bundle']};
  }

---

Debugging

If you don't recognise anything above, the easiest thing to debug that kind of error is by placing var_dump(debug_backtrace()); or dd(debug_backtrace()); (when Devel is on) before the actual throw new EntityMalformedException on the affected line in common.inc.

^{Note: Using dd() function from Devel will generate the debugging info to the file in your Drupal temp folder (temporary://drupal_debug.txt) with backtrace dump, otherwise could be too big and difficult to read when dumping on the screen. When using var_dump(), it's easier to call die(); after the call and check the dump in the view-source mode of the page.}

If this is happening on node save, check this EntityMalformedException post at SO for more detailed instructions.

---

See also the following Drupal issue: #1778572 for more ideas.

Answer 2

Thanks to Clive comments, I solved the issue as following.

Added ddebug_backtrace() where error occured (entity_extract_ids(), line 7700 of .\includes\common.inc ) to print the function call stack.

Then looking for anything unexpected in output, I found that a pane visibility rule might be the problem.

19: ctools_entity_field_value_ctools_access_check() (Array, 2 elements)
  file (String, 81 characters ) profiles\commons\modules\contrib\ctools\plugins...
  $...['19: ctools_entity_field_value_ctools_access_check()']['file']
    profiles\commons\modules\contrib\ctools\plugins\access\entity_field_value.inc:213
  args (Array, 3 elements)
    0 (Array, 2 elements)
      field_theme (Array, 1 element)
      //...

I had applied a patch on entity_field_value.inc a few days ago just to solve a visibility rule notice... and created a test visibility rule with a field_theme condition.

Now reverting patch or removing any pane visibility rule solved current EntityMalformedException bug... Powerful ddebug_backtrace() !

Answer 3

This issue comes up when there are orphaned nodes, simply get rid of them and cron will run without any error. Search indexing will finally get to 100%. Backup your database before proceeding.

Assuming you have access to phpMyAdmin, run this SQL code to identify the nodes then delete them. Replace my question content type machine name with your specific content type machine name one after the other till you get no result, that's after deleting.

SELECT n.nid, n.title, n.vid, nr.vid FROM drcm_node n LEFT JOIN drcm_node_revision nr ON nr.nid = n.nid WHERE n.type = 'question' AND nr.vid IS NULL ORDER BY n.nid ASC

You can delete the orphaned nodes by using the SQL code below. Replace the numbers in the bracket with your specific node IDs

DELETE from node where nid IN (12779,12780,12781,12782)